With the 2010 election cycle about to jump into full swing, the nation’s many politicians are turning to tried and true methods of producing results. They are antagonizing against China. Politicians on the Left and Right are looking for opportunities to blast Chinese environmental policies, labor standards, human rights abuses, and international commercial manipulation.

Unfortunately, the rhetoric is creating a problem for the United States; it is upsetting the Chinese.

It is important to note that China does, in fact, do all of the things that it is being accused of. It has virtually no environmental or worker safety regulations. It practices overt mercantilist favoritism of domestic companies, it manipulates international currency markets, and takes full advantage of the good graces of open markets around the world.

On Tuesday China rebuked the United States for being “protectionist.” One of the most close and regulated economies in the world (China) accused the most open and unregulated (the United States) of evil protectionism, and the claim was given good press.

If the U.S. government actually paid attention to these issues on a continual basis the Chinese wouldn’t have room to complain, because we would have established positions from which we are fighting. If our stated policy was to root out protectionism and provide free and fair trade for all, China wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. Under our current system, China merely looks like a target of convenience. Essentially, it is easy for them to make us look like the bad guys.

The problem isn’t the fact that American politicians have targeted the wrongs of China, the problem is that American politicians only use it as a political ploy. We only campaign on “fair currency” and “fair trade” for a few months during the election cycle. Senators, Representatives, executive appointees, even Presidential candidates, all of them do it. But they only do it for a short while before it falls completely off their radar. As a result, Beijing has taken offense to the sporadic attacks against its economic institutions.

According to Financial Times, China is no longer simply issuing counterstatements of its own; it is shifting into hardcore lobbying. The Chinese government has called on U.S.-based multinational corporations to lobby the White House and get it to adopt a more agreeable policy toward Chinese protectionism. President Obama is going to need corporate sponsorship if he hopes to fund Democratic victories in 2010. He is going to need even more of it in 2012 for his own goals. If China sways the corporate interests, and the corporate interests then sway our political system, there is little the American people will be able to do.

U.S.-based companies are not inclined to favor the nation where they happen to be headquartered. They can always simply build a new headquarters anywhere in the world and move their business in a never-ending pursuit of investment. China offers these multinationals limitless government kickbacks and 1.4 billion potential customers if they are loyal to the cause. It also offers companies absolute denial of market entrance if they fail to play along.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has declared time and again that his national currency is not undervalued. The fact that it maintains a perfect peg against the dollar, in an international system where all other currencies float, is lost on the Chinese. Even if they do agree that their currency is undervalued, they simply argue that as a developing nation they need the boost.

Most experts, analysts, and politicians see right through the claims, but they never take any firm action. Whenever they do, China begins slinging mud. Right now the United States Congress has many pieces of legislation being held up in committee that could take on Chinese manipulation and help rebuild our economy. But each of these pieces would draw animosity from the Chinese, and potentially hurt a politicians chances of staying “in the money” for re-election.

These bills could, and should, be openly discussed year-round in the United States, so that the people could hear exactly how important they are to our future. If every American understood what China (or Japan, or the European Union, or South Korea, etc.) is doing to our economic system they would be up in arms. Even if China was able to sway corporate interests politicians would be elected on merit alone, and policies would move forward. Instead, Americans are largely unaware of international political economics, politicians are driven by the corporate machine, and any “anti-China” (anti-Japan, anti-EU, etc.) flare-ups are quickly extinguished with a few harsh words from Beijing.

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